Reang refugees to cast postal ballot in Mizoram election

Published: Tuesday, November 11, 2008, 10:34 [IST]

Subscribe to Oneindia News

Agartala, Nov 11 (UNI) The Election Commission of India (ECI) has decided to allow postal ballot for Reang refugees displaced from western Mizoram a decade ago following their threat of boycotting the Assembly election on December 2.

Official sources here today said Mizoram's Reang refugees, living in six different camps of North Tripura, would be allowed to cast their votes in advance through postal ballot.

The ECI has informed the matter to both Tripura and Mizoram election departments while asking to manage all logistics and manpower from Mizoram and other supports from Tripura to conduct smooth exercise of postal ballot casting in refugee camps.

In previous elections, including the last Lok Sabha and state Assembly, the ECI had set up a separate booth along the border in Tripura and Mizoram and as a result, most of the voters could not exercise their franchise in the elections.

The ECI has not yet taken any decision to enroll about 7,800 eligible voters in the electoral roll even though the issue has been referred to the Commission, the sources added.

About 35,000 Reangs have been living in Kanchanpur subdivision of North Tripura since 1997 following the ethnic clash in Mamit district of Western Mizoram.

However, neither the Centre nor Mizoram government was sincere to solve the decade-old problem.